Top-Down Approach to Revolution

There are always two basic ways to create change—especially radical social change. One is bottom-up. The other is top-down.

A good example of bottom-up change is the 1960s civil rights era. Back then, the government was not supportive at first. The push came from society—people on the ground fighting for equal rights. The Black community led major civil rights efforts. Women pushed for greater rights and recognition. College students and young people mobilized and protested. That was a bottom-up movement: ordinary people driving the change first, and the system being forced to respond.

Over about 10 to 15 years, that bottom-up pressure produced huge transformations. The country went from segregation being normal and voting rights being restricted, to major civil rights reforms, expanded voting rights, and the legal dismantling of segregation. It was a radical change in a relatively short period of time.

But there is also a top-down approach. That’s when the government tries to force society to change from above—through policy, institutions, and power. And that is what we are seeing right now.

We are not seeing a massive, unified movement from society demanding change in the way the 1960s looked. Instead, the action is coming from the top—especially from the federal government and the executive branch. The government is driving changes quickly and aggressively, turning the culture war into policy and trying to reshape society through force.

The Trump administration, in particular, seems to believe that personnel is policy. That’s why they have been placing loyalists into critical positions, then rolling out new policies constantly—almost every day—to push a rapid shift in American culture and institutions.

Both approaches have pros and cons. Sometimes bottom-up works. Sometimes top-down works. The civil rights movement shows how powerful bottom-up change can be. But this time, with the top-down approach, we are already seeing a lot of resistance from people on the ground.

The problem is that we still have three years to go. It’s hard to predict what the future will look like, but we will definitely see a different America in three years. And by then, we will be able to measure how successful this top-down push really was.

But even if the next president is not MAGA—and instead swings hard in the other direction, more like a radical left—we might just see another top-down approach from the opposite side. Maybe even more extreme.

So we can’t see the future clearly. The only thing we can be certain of is uncertainty.